da dobrowin： It was an inexperienced Australia bowling line-up but that didn’t prevent them from taking the eight wickets needed on the final day to take a series lead in the top-of-the-table clash with South Africa
The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran02-Mar-2009
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Mitchell Johnson was adjudged Man of the Match for his efforts with both the bat and ball © AFP
Write off Australia only if you wish to be called a fool. South Africa’scoronation as the world’s best Test side was put on hold as an Australianteam with three debutants in the ranks routed them by 162 runs at theWanderers. Each of the four pace bowlers was absolutely superb asAustralia choked the life out of the South African batting beforeadministering the lethal blows. Mitchell Johnson led the way with 4 for112, but Peter Siddle was just as impressive, summoning up a magnificentspell that accounted for JP Duminy in the second session.There was no dramatic collapse, as on the fourth day, but Australia’spersistence was eye-catching and by the time Johnson slipped one throughDale Steyn’s bat and pad, eight wickets had fallen for 85 runs. Havingstarted the day needing a further 276 to win, South Africa lasted justeight balls after tea, with tidy, restrictive bowling the key to theAustralian success. They simply blocked off the runs and waited for themistakes.Not long ago, Duminy had marshalled a tremendous rearguard action at theMCG that ultimately inspired a South African series win. There was to beno such repeat on Monday though, with Siddle’s spell irrevocably changingthe game after lunch. Accurate, hostile and tireless, he kept running inuntil Duminy finally fended a brute of a delivery to Ricky Ponting atsecond slip.What followed wouldn’t have thrilled the South African dressing room much.Morne Morkel had fallen to a poor pull stroke in the first innings, butthere was no instance of twice shy here, with an ill-advised hoick atJohnson ending up in Phillip Hughes’ hands at midwicket. That left MarkBoucher as the lone hope for survival, and when the hugely impressive BenHilfenhaus got some late movement to take the inside edge of his bat,South Africa were left to ponder a post-tea miracle.Hans Christian Andersen wasn’t at the Wanderers though, and Paul Harrisdeflected a Siddle delivery to short leg to start the countdown. Two ballslater, Johnson finished it off to spark jubilant celebrations from Pontingand his supposed underdog side.Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla had started the day with all three results very much a possibility, but when Hilfenhaus got one to rear and strikeKallis on the glove in the day’s opening over, you sensed the magnitude ofthe task that they faced. Even so, the duo survived the initial burst fromHilfenhaus and Johnson to raise hopes among the sparse crowd.A superb cover-drive off Johnson took Amla to his half-century from 103balls, and when Kallis flicked an errant delivery from Siddle for four,South Africa had 200 on the board. It all went wrong soon after. Thepartnership was worth 76 when a ball from Siddle appeared to stop a littleon Amla. His click off the toes only found Hughes at midwicket.Five runs later, it got worse. Andrew McDonald bowled at pedestrian pace,but was so accurate that South Africa simply couldn’t get him away. As thepressure built, AB de Villiers attempted to turn one away off the pads.The Australian appeal was spontaneous, as was Billy Bowden’s response, andthough de Villiers went for a referral, it was futile.The grip was tightening, with just 10 runs from 10 overs, and when the newball was taken, there was another moment of drama. Johnson’s firstdelivery with it kept low and struck Kallis plumb in front of the stumps.But as soon as Bowden’s crooked finger went up, Kallis went for thereferral. This time, fortune was on South Africa’s side, with the replayshowing that the ball might have pitched just outside the line of legstump.Kallis didn’t stick around long enough to make much of the reprievethough. When Johnson pitched one full and wide of off stump, he went forthe flamboyant drive on bended knee. Unfortunately for him, it onlyproduced an inside edge on to the stumps. Kallis had scored just 4 fromthe last 42 balls that he faced, and his exit drastically reduced SouthAfrica’s chances of saving the game.Duminy played one gorgeous on-drive off Johnson, but there was little elsefor South Africa to savour before lunch was taken. If the slips hadn’tbeen so deep, Australia might even have had another wicket, as Hilfenhausinduced an edge from Boucher. Ultimately though, it mattered little, withthe Australian progress to victory inexorable.